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No. 624,488. Patented May 9, H3199.

E. G. HOFFMANN.

MACHINE ADAPTED FOR MAKING BALLS, RIVETS, 8w.

(Application filed Mar. 5, 189B.) (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet I.

"III" s IIIIH E. a. HUFFMANN. MACHINE ADAPTED FOR MAKING BALLS, RIVETS, 81.0.

Patented May 9, 18199.

(Application filed Mar. 5, 1898.)

3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

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M if No. 624,488. Patented May 9, I899. v

E. G. HUFFMANN.

MACHINE ADAPTED FOR MAKING BALLS, BIVETS, 8L0.

(Application filed Mar. 5, ma.

3 Sh eetsSheet 3.

(No Model.)

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NlTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ERNST GUSTAV HOFFMANN, or LONDON, ENGLAND.

MACHINE ADAPTED FOR MAKING BALLS,RIVETSV, 86c.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 624,488, dated May 9, 1899.

Application filed March 5, 1898.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ERNST GUSTAV Horn-- MANN, a subject of the German Emperor, re-

siding at London, England, have invented a new and useful Machine Adapted for Making Balls, Rivets, &c., of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to'machines adapted forautomatically making balls, rivets, screws, and like articles by cutting or turning same from a rotating body, such as a wire.

The invention is particularly applicable and will be described by Way of illustration in connection with an automatic ball-making machine, described in Letters Patent of the United States No. 504,083 and granted to me, having circular cuttersprovided with a series of grooves and cutting edges adapted to rough out a ball, finish others, and sever one or act with a series of operations upon a series of balls at one forward movement. In such a machine it has been found that when the roughing-out action on one ball takes place simultaneously with the finishing action on another the strain on the cutter occasioned by the heavier work of roughing out rather interferes with the finer work of finishing, and hence is liable toimpair the accuracy of the finished ball. To obviate this, the invention consists in providing a separate cutter for the roughing-out process, such cutter being provided with a movement independent of the finishing-cutter, so that it is capable of being advanced to and Withdrawn from the work independently of the other, and according to this invention is in factpreferably withdrawn before the finishing-cutter has completed the finishing of a ball, so that the greater strain is removed from the material or balls being operated upon and a more accurate article is thereby produced. To further assist in relieving the material or balls of this strain, an adjustable back support capable of partly embracing the balls or the like is also employed.

In the accompanying drawings is illustrated a part of a machine for making balls from a rotating wire sufficient to illustrate the application of the present invention.

Figure 1 is a plan of same, Fig. 2 a front elevation, and Fig. 3 is a cross-section on line a: :0, Fig. 1.

The general construction of the machine Serial No. 672,751. (No model.)

the other side of the machine is a clutch 6, adapted to hold the ball last made until severed by the cutter, when it is carried along the hollow spindle c and is discharged from the end of same, the clutch being opened to release the ball for this purpose and closed to grip the next one bya pivoted lever f, operated by a cam g on the shaft h. Said shaft is operated by a gear-wheel h from some moving part of the machine, and the spindles c c arerotated by means of the pulleys 'i i, the first serving to rotate the wire while the clutch e is holding same and the second to rotate the clutch c in the same direction, so that it travels with the ball it is holding at the same speed. The wire may be fed forward by hand or by any suitable mechanism, the present invention not being concerned with the wirefeeding devices.

are mounted on the frame a two slides 70 k,

suitably guided by dovetail portions 10, working in correspondingly-shaped grooves in the frame or in the form shown in a projecting part a, provided to carry end slides. These slides are each capable of an independent reciprocating motion through the agency of lever l, Fig. 3, situated in a recess of the part a and carried by a stud Z, journaled in said part. The stud is operated in turn by a lever m, attached to a connecting-rod 1m, carrying a cam-lever m pivoted at hi the free end of which lever or a roller carried by same bears against and is operated by a cam n on shaft h. A spring m is employed to operate the rod m in the opposite direction to the cam. The means for operating the other.

handle and suitable adjusting devices, which need not be here described, to enable each clamp to properly hold the mandrels p of cutters q g, respectively, so that same are practically side by side. These cutters are here shown as circular and as having grooves around their peripheries and a mutilated portion forminga cutting edge, as shown in Fig.

3, such cutting edge serving to reduce the wire d to the form or curvature of the grooves of the cutter.

The cutters are shown as producing balls from the wire (1, thecutter (1 being the roughing-out cutter and the cutter q the finishing and severing cutter. The cutter q is shown as provided with a single groove adapted to rough out one ball at a time and the cutter q with two grooves, which are cut to different depths,.so that the first one on the left will partly finish a second ball and the second one will entirely finish a third ball, previous to which a parting-knife fin or edge on the extreme right has (lu ring the first forward movement of the cutter severed and finisheda fourth ball, which is at that moment held in the jaws of clutch e. In the arrangement indicated in Fig. 1 the space between the cutters is such that a fifth ball, which has just been roughed out, is present on the wire; but this or the number of same is dependent entirely upon the space left between such cutters. The form of such cutters, however, is only illustrated and described generally, as it is an arrangement now known from my patent before referred to, as is also the means of giving the cutters the forward movement, all of such being a portion of the arrangement of the cams and connected parts which do not come within the scope of the present invention. At the rear of the partly-formed balls is a back support consisting of a block 8, adjustable on the frame a by means'of a screw t and a slot in said block. This block is provided with a hardened-metal bearing a, Fig. 3, adapted to allow the balls to partly seat therein and to take up the strain caused by the pressure of the tools upon said balls, or it may be provided with rollers.

What is claimed is- 1. In a machine for making balls or like articles the combination with a hollow spindle and clutch for holding the wire, a similar spindle and clutch for holding the article operated upon before, during and after its-separationfrom the Wire and means for rotating both spindles and their clutches at the same speed and in the same direction, of a cutter for roughing out the article, a cutter for finishing the article which has been roughed out by the first cutter, slides carried alongside of each other and holding each a cutter as aforesaid, means for supporting the, slides, and means for independently moving same substantially as described.

2. In a machine for making balls and like articles from Wire and in combination a pair of circular cutters'one of same being adapted to rough out an article from the wire and the other to further act on'such roughed-out article and to sever a third, means for carrying such cutters side by side, and means for independently reciprocating such cutters, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ERNST GUSTAV I-IOFPMANN.

\Vitnesses:

ALLEN PARRY JONES, FRED O. HARRIS. 

